Freelance writer Karen Catchpole and photographer Eric Mohl are in Belize for a month to take a closer look what Belize has to offer. The Belize Tourism Board gave the duo an itinerary and they have been spending at couple of days at each destination. Marketing Officer Michelle Bowers tells us more.

Michelle Bowers; Marketing Officer, BTB

“Any visit from a travel writer, be it freelance or not, it is an excellent opportunity to promote and get greater visibility to the destination. They are unlike the usual type of travel writer we would have in that they are actually spending a month in our destination. They have been travelling the Americas and they decided to concentrate a month. They are driving around the country and they are actually exposing themselves and learning as much as they can to teach their readership. In addition to that they also do a blog for Lonely Planet which has a viewership of about 1.2 million persons so that is by extension even greater visibility for the destination.”

Catchpole and Mohl arrived in Belize on April ninth and some of the destinations on their itinerary are Lamanai Outpost, Mata Chica, Cave’s Branch, Turneffe Island and Turtle Inn.

Michelle Bowers

“They have rented a vehicle and they are driving through the country. Ordinarily on the usual itinerary we would have a travel writer staying at a destination maybe one or two days. They are staying at least four to five days at each destination and actually getting to speak with the people, get to know the property so that when they write their story they are able to give a first hand account of what the destination is really about. They have about a week or so left in the country but we are looking forward to their stories. They write for several magazines; they write for National Geographic, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Travel and Leisure and Everyday with Rachael Ray so we are really looking forward to their story coming up probably in the next couple on months. At the end of the day the amount of publicity you get I think it’s priceless.”

The circulation of Minneapolis Star Tribune is five hundred thousand people and National Geographic reaches about 715 thousand people.